Pickle for Corn Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Combine the water, coarse sea salt, sugar, and saltpetre in a large container. Stir until the salt and sugar are fully dissolved.
Cure the beef
Use the brine to pickle the corn beef as desired.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping it cure and firm up.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and adds a cured flavour during brining.
- Sugar
- Balances the saltiness and softens the savour of the cured meat.
The step that matters
Dissolve the salt and sugar fully. Undissolved salt and sugar settle unevenly, so some pieces of beef would cure much saltier than others. Stirring until clear gives an even brine.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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